Thursday, March 28, 2013

“Mary Escars” in The American Book of Beauty, or, Token of Friendship
(Hartford, 1847?)

Recently, the Library Company acquired a fifth copy
of The American Book of Beauty, or, Token
of Friendship (Hartford: Silas Andrus & Son, 1847). The first four
copies (three given by Todd and Sharon Pattison and one by Michael Zinman) have
publisher’s bindings that all differ slightly. This fifth copy, purchased with
the Davida T. Deutsch Women’s History Fund, also differs from the others.

The Library Company has an extensive collection of such gift
books, which would have been available for the end-of-year-holiday market
beginning in the late 1820s. But why would a publisher issue a gift book with many
subtle differences in binding? (And then issue the book again the following
year, with slight textual changes, too? But that’s another story.) The book is
a conundrum in a multitude of ways, but it especially raises questions for us,
since we’ve long sought to identify published portraits of American Women in ImPAC.

The title page states that the volume was “edited by a
lady.” Often we know the identity of “A lady,” but this time we don’t. The book
has seven engraved plates depicting women who are identified by name: Mrs.
Henry Baldwin, Miss Adelia Hoyt, Miss Tyndal, Mary Escars, Miss Ketchum, Mrs.
Coster and Child, and the Countess of Calabrella. One of these is easy to
identify as the “Countess of Calabrella” is almost certainly the Baroness of
Calabrella (1788-1856), who was an English writer. The image even resembles
other known portraits of the Baroness (after a fashion ...). But who are the
other six women? Especially curious is the fact that the portraits do not seem related to the text of the book.

So we started looking at plates in the similarly titled Heath’s Book of Beauty, which was a
popular English annual. There, we discovered the portrait of Mary Escars in the
volume for 1839. But this time she was identified as “Mrs. Verschoyle”:

“Mrs. Verschoyle” inHeath's Book of Beauty: 1839 (London,
1839) -- Further identified as Catherine Curtis Verschoyle by Jessica Linker on March 29, 2013.

The editor of Heath’s was the Countess of Blessington (1789-1849), a famous beauty
herself. During the sixteen years in the 1830s and 1840s that she edited Heath's, 116 women’s portraits appeared in its pages.
Having one’s portrait in Heath’s was
an honor. Even Queen Victoria allowed her portrait to be published as the
frontispiece ... four times! It may be that the engraved plate for printing Mrs.
Verschoyle’s portrait was produced for Heath’s,
and then made a trip across the Atlantic to become “Mary Escars” in American
gift books. The plate captioned “Mary Escars” appears in both The American Book of Beauty (Hartford,
1847) and Family Circle, and Parlor
Annual, 1849 (New York, 1848), and perhaps other books as well.

All this may help to explain why the woman “Mary Escars” has
been so hard to track down. And why, in an earlier edition of The American Book of Beauty (New York,
1845), the same portrait is listed in the table of illustrations as “Mrs.
Verschoyle of Baltimore.” So far, we believe that Mrs. Verschoyle was indeed a
wealthy woman in Great Britain – and not the mysterious “Mary Escars.” We also have
located no entry for anyone with the surname Verschoyle in Baltimore city directories
– so that appears to be a ruse as well.

According to all the plates, the portrait of Mrs.
Verschoyle/Mary Escars was engraved by William Henry Mote after a painting by
Alfred Edward Chalon (1780-1860). Alfred Chalon was indeed a London portrait
painter, who became known for his portraits of Queen Victoria. And William
Henry Mote was a prolific London steel engraver. But does the original painting
survive, and who was the real sitter?

And what about the other five women? Can anyone help us find
their portraits elsewhere? We’d love to hear from you if you can help us with
this artistic shell game.

See the images below for “our” women in The American Book of Beauty (Hartford, 1847):

"Mrs. Henry Baldwin and Child" -- Original sitter identified as Mrs. Henry Bathurst by Jessica Linker on March 29, 2013.

"Miss Adelia Hoyt" -- Original sitter identified as the Hon. Mrs. George Anson by Alison McMenamin on March 28, 2013.

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The Library Company of Philadelphia

The Library Company of Philadelphia is an independent research library specializing in American history and culture from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Open to the public free of charge, the Library Company houses an extensive collection of rare books, manuscripts, broadsides, ephemera, prints, photographs, and works of art. Founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, the Library Company is America's oldest cultural institution and served as the Library of Congress from the Revolutionary War to 1800. The Library Company was the largest public library in America until the Civil War.

The mission of the Library Company is to preserve, interpret, make available, and augment the valuable materials in our care. We serve a diverse constituency throughout Philadelphia and internationally, offering comprehensive reader services, an internationally renowned fellowship program, online catalogs, and regular exhibitions and public programs.